Sister Act: McKenna Battilla follows older sibling as Polk's top girls tennis player

When McKenna Battilla was young, she would shadow older sister Peyton when Peyton was taking tennis lessons.

"I would just sit in the back of the court just messing around, just shadow stroking almost every stroke she had and waiting for my day to be able to partake in the lessons," she said.

McKenna followed in the footsteps of her older sister, playing and excelling at tennis and soccer and has continued that journey in high school. The sisters teamed up to form a high-scoring duo in soccer, and in tennis McKenna, a freshman, supplanted Peyton, a senior, as No. 1 singles player for Auburndale and emerged as the top player in the county.

McKenna is The Ledger's 2023 Girls Tennis Player of the Year, winning the honor that her sister Peyton won a year ago. The last time sisters won back-to-back player of the year honors came in the 2000s when one of the Arguello sisters, Monica four times and Andrea twice, won the award for six straight years.

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Having a talented athlete like Peyton, who was a three-sport, first-team, All-County selection this past school year, as an older sister benefitted McKenna.

"It definitely helped a lot growing up," McKenna said. "She started taking lessons, and I wasn't able to. It just had me eager to play and just to work harder and knowing that if she was working, that I needed to also because I always wanted to just be like her. We both are very competitive. Everything she does, I try to be like in everything I do. We're just kind of neck and neck with everything, which helps you work harder and push yourself harder to get better."

McKenna began playing both soccer and tennis at a young age. She played rec soccer then club soccer but also took tennis lessons and has played juniors tennis.

"I'm not the type of person that likes to sit at home and chill," McKenna said. "I like going from school to tennis to soccer. Days that it rains, the days that I don't have to do it, I don't know what to do with myself at home because I would rather be playing soccer and tennis."

After a high school soccer season in which she scored 31 goals and added 11 assists, one shy in each category of Peyton's totals of 32 and 12 respectively, McKenna took over at No. 1 singles spot after playing Peyton in a preseason match at practice. She went on to an undefeated season, not losing until her final match at the state tournament, winning county and district titles along the way. She and Peyton also formed an unbeatable team at No 1 doubles.

McKenna said she enjoys doubles more than singles, especially this season with Peyton as her partner.

"I feel like with doubles, it just depends on who my partner is," she said. "I've grown up playing with partners that I just would much rather be playing singles than playing with them. But I definitely prefer doubles over singles just because if I ever do get frustrated, I have somebody out there to like, calm me down and help me out. But playing with my sister definitely makes it a lot more fun rather than growing up and playing with some of the partners that I've had to deal with."

The sisters had fun playing doubles together in high school, a lot more fun than when they were younger.

"We both just weren't mature as we are now," McKenna said. "Now, we just are more mature and realized that instead of getting mad at each other, we can pick each other up. We rarely ever had arguments on the court and if there were arguments, they were just that we weren't agreeing on something that we need to do better."

McKenna was rarely challenged during the season. In nine matches, she lost just six games. She lost more than one game in a set just once, which came in a 6-0, 6-2 win over Jada Hutto of McKeel.

The only loss for McKenna came in the state championship match against Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas' Chloe Fouhety, 5-3, 3-5, 10-4.

"It was definitely a tough match," McKenna said. "I did not expect it to be that close. I was super, super nervous in the beginning of the match."

It was a back-and-forth match.

"Whenever she came back in the second set, I kind of just relaxed and tried to remember the basics — just get the ball back in play — and it helped me in the second set," McKenna said. "But in the tiebreaker, I tried to put too much pressure on myself just because I was so close to winning the match. That was probably the most disappointing part was how close the match was and how close I was to winning."

Peyton has graduated, but McKenna still has three years of high school remaining and is the top girls tennis player and one of the top soccer players in the county. Like McKenna, she was first-team, All-County in soccer. For now, she's not picking one over the other as her main sport.

"I'm going to start doing more college ID camps for both soccer and tennis and see which schools, when I'm older, would offer me for what sport," McKenna said. "I'm going to continue to train in both tennis and soccer."

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: McKenna Battilla follows older sibling as Polk's top girls tennis player